What will you do if you are a speaker and you notice that the audience is no longer paying attention to you and your speech?

How to engage your audience and keep their attention? I have analysed speeches by most successful public speakers, such as Boris Johnson, ex American President John Kennedy and my own speeches. In this blog post, I will reveal and explain to you my findings.

1. Be passionate about what you say and know your subject
When you know and love your subject it shows through. People feel your passion and it is contagious. People start feeling passionate about it almost unconsciously and seeing it as very interesting indeed.

2. "Think like a wise man, but speak as simple people do", Aristotle
I taught many intellectuals and PhDs and I have noticed one thing in common among them: they tend to use long words and long sentences. They describe details meticulously. This approach works well for writing an MA or a PhD article or thesis, but for oratorical performances, it is best to use short, catchy, punchy words and short sentences.

3. Deliver high-level positive messages. Don't go into small boring details
Recently I helped to prepare a sales pitch for one of my students who wanted to get £30million investment for his business. When he presented it to me for the first time I felt super bored and depressed. The speech was "polluted" by small details, poisoned by hesitation and lack of belief in the project. We worked on his speech and substituted long sentences full of disbelief with short, upbeat optimistic prospects without going into small details. The speech became 70% shorter and very optimistic. He delivered the speech and got the investment. Many tech guys love small details, no surprise they sound dull and as a result, are stuck in their low-level jobs without any prospect for high-level management positions.

4. Use sentence stress and pauses
If you do not use sentence stress and pauses you are risking that you important optimistic messages will be lost among words. I have noticed that many intelligent people who are bursting with ideas tend to speak in paragraphs. They want to unload as many ideas as possible in a short period of time. There is no stress and no pause between sentences. The thing is that it takes longer for us to absorb an idea than for a person to say it. There is nothing more confusing than a speech without stresses and pauses. Make a pause after each sentence. Allow your audience time to take it in and prepare them for your next message. You can practice these skills with our app 4Ps, Power, Pitch, Pace, Pause.

5. Create anticipation & use rhetoric devices such as digressio.
Start with a question or story and do not give an answer or climax of the story straight away, divert from it and you will keep your audience attention until the end of your speech. Boris Johnson is a master of this technique.

6. Ask questions effectively
This technique is engaging and the more questions you ask the more interest you will stir among your public. Seasoned public speakers know how effectively ask rhetorical questions. A rhetorical question is a device used to persuade or subtly influence the audience. It's a question asked not for the answer, but for the effect. It could a very effective way to end your speech with a question and make your audience think further about you and your subject. The purpose of any communication is what reactions/responses this communication will create. Think about what reaction do you want to create with your questions.

7. Connect with your audience from the start
Know your audience
Do your homework and find out at least basic facts about your audience: their educational level, age range, and needs. Speak their language, appeal to their needs and dreams.

Unite with your audience by saying "we.." instead of "I.." We live longer..", "We all want it...", "We cannot wait..." True masters of public speaking like Boris Johnson use it all the time. With this simple technique "we.." you will immediately persuade your audience that you want the same thing and you are one team.

Appeal to people's emotions
When John Kennedy started his public speeches nobody wanted to listen to him. He was shy and boring. People were literally falling asleep during his speeches. But once he connected to emotions of war widows, he finally saw the interest in their eyes, they were listening, they were crying. He learned how to connect with his audience and as a result won the election and became the President of the United States.

Be giving
It is very important to remember that by nature people think in terms of "what's in it for me".  They can't care less about how smart and great you are. They are looking at what you can give. Before you speak to your audience, ask yourself questions: what can I give to them? How I can help them? Design your messages in terms of your audience's benefits.

To summarise: connect with your audience, inspire them with your passion and have a giving attitude. Speak in a simple way, ask questions effectively, stress important messages and use pauses generously.

More on www.batcsglobal.com

In The sentence "The Secretary may announce a new policy regarding school uniforms," which word expresses possibility? a. Secretary b. may C. announc … e d. regarding​

example of:3 claim of fact.3 claim of value. 3 claim of policy. ​

suggest topics for speech​

Learning Task 6: Find the collective noun used in each statement. Then, identify its number by writing S for singular and P for plural. Write your ans … wers in your notebook. Example Answers The tennis team wins its first gold medal. team - S​

Using the following intention below, write 10 illocutionary sentences. (Stating of opinion, confirming, or denying something, making a prediction, a p … romise, a request. issuing an order, or a decision or giving advice or permission.)​

38099B02-FF4A-F8EC-91331834BE145F79

• Describe a scene or a character.
• Tell a story.
• Share a personal experience.
• Relate to a recent event.
• Piggyback on a previous speaker’s remark or theme.
• Point out something important about the audience or the current setting.
• Show a compelling visual image.
• Ask a provocative question.
• State a fact that is troubling, amusing, or remarkable.
• Spell out what's at stake for your listeners.
• Offer a humorous observation or anecdote.
• Explain your own interest in the topic.
• Tell listeners what the topic has to do with them.

1. Define unfamiliar terms.
2. Use concrete, specific examples to illustrate points. Tell stories.
3. Make statistics meaningful: Use graphics to help clarify numerical data. Round off big numbers. Interpret stats, translate them into human terms. Make comparisons.
4. Use analogies to relate the unknown to the known. (“It’s kind of like...”)
5. Build audience involvement by making your subject immediate, personal, and local.
   • Connect to the here-and-now.
   • Refer to your listeners’ experience. Mention your own experience.  Personalize the subject when that’s appropriate.
   • Highlight the local angle—a person, a place, an event. Bring it home.
      

1. Use previews and summaries.
   • Previews tell listeners what's coming next or how you're going to develop a point. For instance, in a discussion of why discrepancies exist between cars’ EPA gas mileage ratings and actual gas mileage, you might say “First I’m going to explain how the EPA arrives at its numbers. Then I’ll explain how the Consumers Union conducts its tests.”
   • Summaries remind listeners of what's important in what was just covered. A summary is especially useful in reframing or refocusing the discussion after a string of supporting details or after any fairly lengthy discussion of a point.
2. Use signposts and transitions.
   • Signposts are words or phrases such as “In the first place...,” “The second issue is...,” “The key argument is...,” etc. They tell the audience where they are in the presentation and flag what’s important to note or remember.
   • Transitions make sure no one gets left behind when you move from one point to the next. They show how pieces of content relate to one another and to your thesis; they tie things together and improve “flow.” Transitions in oral presentations often must be more obvious than those used in writing. They tell listeners not only that you’re moving on but also where you’re going next. Changes in body position, gestures, and voice can help listeners recognize a transition.

1. Avoid vague pronoun references. These are bad in writing but terrible in speech.  Listeners don't have the option of looking back over the text to figure them out.
2. Similarly, avoid words like “respectively” (as in “John, Ashley, and Tamika represented the Departments of Economics, Biology, and English, respectively.”) and “the former...the latter” (as in “You can purchase beef that is either dry-aged or wet-aged. Professional chefs know that, for the best steaks, you want the latter.”)  Like pronouns, both of these constructions require the audience to remember certain details in order to understand a later reference to them. The problem is that listeners may not have paid close enough attention to the earlier details; they didn't realize they'd be “tested” on them later. Whenever you’re tempted to use this type of verbal device, ask yourself, “If I had only my ear to depend on and heard it only once, would I get it?”

1. Summarize and refocus. Recap the main points or arguments you’ve covered.  Reiterate your purpose, thesis, or research question. Reinforce what’s important for the audience to take away from your presentation.
2. Close. Create closure, a sense of finality. Here you can use many of the same kinds of devices suggested for openings. You can even return to exactly the same anecdote, quotation, or remark you used at the beginning—and give it a twist. Other approaches are to lay down a challenge, look to the future, or simply to firmly restate your basic conclusion or recommendation. Avoid introducing new evidence or opening a new line of argument.